Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] We're going to start in Matthew.
[00:00:03] This probably isn't the place you'd normally start when you start talking about life in the spirit.
[00:00:07] I think we always. When we talk about life in the spirit, we're tempted to always kind of head towards the gifts of the spirit. And we're tempted to start thinking about prophecy and all the cool things that comes with that. And they are amazing. But I really feel that there's something grounding in this message this morning, something which is just going to help us maybe work some of that stuff out. So we are in Matthew, chapter six. It's up there as well.
[00:00:36] If you haven't got your Bible with you, we're reading from 19 to 34.
[00:00:43] So it says this. Do not lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.
[00:00:55] But lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
[00:01:03] For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
[00:01:07] The eye of the lamp.
[00:01:09] Sorry. The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body it will be full of light.
[00:01:14] But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.
[00:01:18] If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?
[00:01:23] No one can serve two masters.
[00:01:27] For you'll either hate one and love the other, or you'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
[00:01:37] Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you'll eat, or what you'll drink, nor about your body, what you're put on.
[00:01:47] Is not life more than food, and a body more than clothing?
[00:01:51] Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them.
[00:01:59] Are you not more value than they?
[00:02:02] And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his lifespan?
[00:02:07] And why are you anxious about clothing?
[00:02:10] Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
[00:02:19] But if God so close the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
[00:02:30] Therefore do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat? Or what should we drink? Or what should we wear? For the Gentiles seek after these things. And your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
[00:02:42] But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.
[00:02:48] Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
[00:02:54] Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
[00:03:00] This was actually a passage that was given to us before we move down from Slough. Crazy story around that. I'm not going to go into that this morning. But sometimes God calls us to make some choices in life.
[00:03:12] In fact, it's not sometimes God calls us to make choices in life.
[00:03:16] God calls us to decide what it is that we actually want to do in life.
[00:03:24] And I really felt that's where God wanted us to start. This morning is around this idea of make the choice.
[00:03:29] What is it that God is asking of us? It says in here, doesn't it, in verse 24, no one can serve two masters who either hate one and love the other, or devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
[00:03:44] Now, Jesus relates this directly to money. But there's a principle here which is really important for us to understand and to grab a hold of. And that is we can't have split.
[00:03:55] We can't have split. What's the word I'm looking for?
[00:03:59] We can't split our priorities in life between God and other stuff.
[00:04:05] We can't split our priorities between. We come to church on a Sunday morning, we do the godly bit, and then we go and live our week as if we just crack on with anything else. We can't do that.
[00:04:15] God asks us at this moment and in this passage to make a choice.
[00:04:20] And that is to choose him and to choose his way.
[00:04:25] And I think that's a really important part of starting to live life in the Spirit.
[00:04:30] If we want to live a way that God has asked us to live, if we want the Spirit to live in us and to work through us, we need to make some choices about our life. We need to understand what it is that God wants us to do. And if we're not willing to make that choice from the start, which is, I want to follow God and I want His Spirit to live in me, we're never going to get to the point where we can do the other stuff.
[00:04:51] And so from the start and from trying to live in the Spirit, we need to choose God.
[00:04:57] We need to choose His Spirit in our lives, and we need to give everything to that.
[00:05:03] It's not a 50, 50. It's not a choice of I'll do a little bit and then I'll go and do some other stuff.
[00:05:09] It's a choice of I'm devoted to this. I'm going to give my life to this. And this is how I want to live.
[00:05:14] So as we start to think about how we live in the Spirit and how we show God through our lives, let's make that choice.
[00:05:23] Let that be our starting point.
[00:05:25] I choose God, I choose His Spirit, and I'm going to live my life that way.
[00:05:36] It then goes on to this amazing passage which I find really, really powerful.
[00:05:42] And it's directly linked. So if we read on to 25, it says, therefore.
[00:05:47] If a Bible passage starts with therefore, read the verse before first, because otherwise you're missing something.
[00:05:55] So we make that choice.
[00:05:57] And then it makes these promises throughout this Bible passage, which is, do not worry, do not be anxious.
[00:06:06] It's repeated time and time again in this bit. I've highlighted them as we go through says, therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life in 25, in 27. And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his lifespan in 28? Why are you anxious about clothing?
[00:06:23] And then can we flip on Again in verse 31, therefore, do not be anxious.
[00:06:30] And again in 34, therefore, do not be anxious.
[00:06:36] If we make that choice and we say, God, you know what? I'm going to choose you over everything else. I'm going to live for you. I'm going to live my life in a way that reflects what you asked me to do.
[00:06:46] There's this promise that comes with that. And that promise is, we don't need to worry.
[00:06:52] We need to worry about life.
[00:06:54] In here. It relates it to clothing and to food, kind of the basic needs in life.
[00:07:01] Sorry, it's very hot today.
[00:07:04] He relates it to the basic needs of life.
[00:07:09] And he's saying, do you know what? You don't need to worry about those things because actually, God is God. He's the creator. He's the beginning and the end. He's the One who knows you. He's the One who created you. He's the One that brought life into your being. He's the One that breathed his breath into you.
[00:07:26] And so we don't need to worry about life.
[00:07:30] We don't need to worry about how things are going to pan out. We don't need to worry about where are we going to get our next meal from. Where are we going to get the basic things in life that we need.
[00:07:40] Don't need to worry about those things because God's already got it covered. And God already knows who you are and he already knows your needs.
[00:07:49] And He's A loving God who wants to give and he wants to see you succeed in life.
[00:07:56] And so we make that choice to follow God and to live in his spirit. And he makes this promise to us through Jesus's words, Do not worry.
[00:08:08] That's easy sometimes to read that, isn't it? And go, oh, great, yeah, fine, sorted. Life's going to be great.
[00:08:15] There will come moments in life where all of a sudden we go, oh, this is not going the way I thought it was going to go.
[00:08:23] This is not necessarily how I thought things would pan out in this moment.
[00:08:29] But there's still that promise. And we need to keep coming back to these words of Jesus. We need to keep reminding ourselves that no matter what we face, whatever situation we're in, whatever things look like, we do not need to worry.
[00:08:45] And I'm, you know, at times I'm an awful worrier. Carla will testify to that. There are moments where I sit and I'm like, I'm a youth worker, okay? In my heart, I'm a youth worker. I've been a youth worker since I was 18, okay? I've lived my life doing youth work. And I've noticed as I talk to more youth workers, there's a trait in youth workers which is we worry about stuff and we start to think about things and we overthink things and we kind of go to the, the worst possible scenario in our heads.
[00:09:13] And then quite often youth workers sit there and they go, oh, no, I don't know what to do now.
[00:09:20] And I don't know why that is seems to be a trait in youth workers, but there we go.
[00:09:25] But I've had to teach myself over the years to, if I go to that worst case scenario is to work backwards and go, okay, so that's probably not going to happen.
[00:09:35] This might happen.
[00:09:37] Likelihood of that is probably not going to happen either. And you kind of work your way back to a point where you go, oh, actually I don't need to worry about that. That's going to be fine.
[00:09:46] And it's a bit, sometimes takes a while, but we get there eventually.
[00:09:51] But I just feel like there's a promise here of make some choices in life and things will be okay. It might not work out how you think it will. It might be different to what you thought it was going to be like, but inside there can be this sense of peace. Because peace is the opposite of worry, isn't it? If we worry about things, we normally worry because we're starting to feel like we're losing control of stuff or we start to ask ourselves the really difficult what if Questions. Well, what if that happens? What if that happens?
[00:10:22] Actually, we can come to things in life from a place of peace.
[00:10:28] We can come to life from a state of not worrying about things and our mind's not thinking straight, but actually from a place where we just feel this peace inside.
[00:10:41] Peace is one of the gifts of the. Sorry. The fruit of the Spirit will come onto the fruit of the Spirit towards the end of this. But it's one of those. And it's something that the Holy Spirit does within our lives, which sometimes doesn't make sense, talks about the peace of God which surpasses all understanding in the Bible.
[00:11:02] Sometimes it doesn't make sense.
[00:11:05] Sometimes it's just a little bit crazy to be able to stand in a situation where things might be going on. And you can approach it from a clear mind because you've got peace in your heart.
[00:11:15] That's what God promises us.
[00:11:22] Peace doesn't come from the absence of something in our lives.
[00:11:26] It comes to us from the presence of something in our lives.
[00:11:31] We can't empty ourselves of things and expect peace.
[00:11:35] All we can do is ask the Spirit to come and fill us and expect peace in our lives because that's what he promises to give us.
[00:11:45] And I know peace is a really difficult subject to talk about and worry and anxiety is difficult because it seems so many people nowadays are anxious and worried.
[00:11:58] And even Christians amongst us and friends of mine who are worried and are anxious about things.
[00:12:07] And I just want to ask you this morning to never give up hope that the God of peace can change that, because he can.
[00:12:18] And we have to trust that God was true to His Word and that His Spirit brings peace.
[00:12:27] So if you are struggling with anxiety and you are struggling with worry, please don't ever give up hope that God's got you.
[00:12:34] And he can change that.
[00:12:37] And I can't give answers to why people suffer with anxiety, but I can give you an answer which is I know God can change it.
[00:12:47] So trust that when God says something, he's going to do it.
[00:12:57] So I think just here in this passage, we've got some really powerful things for us to take note of, to make choice, to do not worry.
[00:13:10] And you know, we can look at this passage sometimes and go, well, you know, culturally it was different in those times. They lived in community better than we do. You know, people could go and not have stuff and their neighbors would provide for them and all that sort of stuff. We can look at that things. But there is still a message within that for us, and that is that God makes a promise that actually if we make a choice for him, we don't need to worry about those things. We don't need to worry about money, we don't need to worry about food, we don't need to worry about clothes. We don't need to worry about the basic things in life because God knows that you need those things and he has ways of providing that sometimes don't even make sense to us.
[00:13:49] We spent eight years living by faith.
[00:13:53] I moved down here for a job. We kind of moved down. I got made redundant from that job. 18 months in. Carla wasn't working. It sparked this eight year journey of us living by faith to the point where people would just turn up at our door with food and go, we were shopping and we felt God once said, you wanted this and just kind of gave us food. There was checks that arrived in the post which were for the exact amount of money that we needed to pay bills. There was people that just gave us cash and said, we felt God wanted you to have this.
[00:14:24] I'm not saying we should all do that, but you know, if God's calling you to do that, do it. But it's just a demonstration of the fact that God is faithful to his word and he will always come through on his promises.
[00:14:38] And so let's make that choice.
[00:14:40] We can't serve two masters. We can't chase after the things that we think we want and serve God.
[00:14:48] And in making that choice, we get some promises which is that we don't need to worry about that stuff.
[00:14:55] It says towards the end, doesn't it? Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all these things will be added to you, not just bits of it, all these things will be added to you.
[00:15:06] So let's stand firm in that promise church that when we make a choice to follow God, when we allow his spirit to infill our lives, we don't need to worry and we just need to trust.
[00:15:19] Because that is very different to the way that the world lives.
[00:15:22] And so if we start to think about what does life in the spirit look like, if we can demonstrate something different, if we can live in a way that doesn't show worry and anxiety about the basic things in life, but trust God for them, people start going, hang on a minute, what's going on?
[00:15:37] They start asking questions and it gives you an opportunity to share his love and his promises with other people.
[00:15:50] The other thing from this passage that I just wanted us to look at briefly Was that actually the basis of all this is a basis of love?
[00:15:59] If we read back through the passage again, there are moments where he talks about, you know, the birds, and they don't do anything to look after their cells, and yet God provides for them through nature, and how much more valuable are you than they? He says, how much more worth do you have than the things we see around us? Infinitely more is the answer to that question.
[00:16:25] God loves you infinitely more than we can ever imagine.
[00:16:31] I think sometimes we struggle to grasp that concept.
[00:16:40] Love provides the basis for growth.
[00:16:45] There's so much research out there now that shows love is probably the most important thing in life, and it provides a good basis for growth.
[00:16:59] And actually it provides a good basis for people taking risks because you feel secure and you feel loved, and so you're willing to do things that you might not do otherwise.
[00:17:12] And so where Jesus says, look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns.
[00:17:21] And then he goes on to say, you are more valuable than them. And then he talks about the grass and the lilies, and again he says, you are more important than them.
[00:17:35] He's created this amazing world that we live in.
[00:17:38] And sometimes I just stand and I go, wow, this place is amazing.
[00:17:43] And yet God loves you so much more than that.
[00:17:49] So let's have that as the basis.
[00:17:52] Let's make the choice.
[00:17:55] And through that love, through Jesus dying and coming back to life, through him promising that his spirit will come to be with those who believe in him, we experience that love in our lives, which doesn't make any sense.
[00:18:11] We are not worthy of it.
[00:18:14] But God saw value and worth in you to the point where he was willing for Jesus to die so that you could experience that. That's how much he loves you.
[00:18:25] You might be sat here for the first time this morning. Maybe this. None of this is making sense.
[00:18:29] If you take nothing else from this than the fact that God loves you more than you will ever know, that's a good place to start.
[00:18:42] We're gonna flip on quick, quickly into 1 Corinthians 13 just to carry on this idea of love being the basis.
[00:18:54] This is a really famous passage, probably read at most weddings that I've ever been to.
[00:19:00] I think it might have been read at ours. I can't remember.
[00:19:05] It's a long time ago now.
[00:19:08] It says this. 1 Corinthians 13. We're reading 1 to 8.
[00:19:12] If I speak of tongues, of men and of angels, but do not have love, I'm a noisy gong or A clanging cymbal.
[00:19:19] And if I have prophetic powers and understand all the mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
[00:19:31] If I give away all I have and I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
[00:19:38] And then there's this just amazing description of what love is.
[00:19:42] Love is patient and kind.
[00:19:44] Love does not envy or boast.
[00:19:46] It is not arrogant or rude. It does not listen, insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with truth.
[00:19:58] Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
[00:20:08] I mean, that's quite a cool description of something, isn't it? The people who wrote the Bible knew what they were doing, didn't they?
[00:20:15] They were pretty good at writing.
[00:20:21] When we start to talk about life in the spirit, I think sometimes, as I said at the start, we nip to the prophetic gifts, we nip to the speaking in tongues.
[00:20:33] We talk about how we can pray for people, and all that stuff is brilliant.
[00:20:38] We've got to have ourselves right first before we start trying to do that stuff.
[00:20:42] If we don't have ourselves right with God, that stuff is just meaningless. It doesn't mean anything.
[00:20:49] If we don't have ourselves in a place where we have experienced that love of God, we have it within us.
[00:20:58] Then those things, there's no point in doing them.
[00:21:01] And sometimes I think that sounds a bit crazy to say that, doesn't it?
[00:21:05] Because it's through the outworking of those things that people often encounter the love of God.
[00:21:13] But it just shows the importance of getting our lives right with God, making those choices, as we said at the start, to follow God and nothing else, allowing the Spirit to live within us, to bring peace and to bring love.
[00:21:26] And it's not a love that we might experience from partners or from girlfriends or boyfriends or from friends or from parents.
[00:21:35] It's a very different kind of love which brings a complete wholeness and a complete sense of stillness within life.
[00:21:43] It's a sense of love which really empowers growth, it challenges you, it comforts you, it gives you everything that you need to be able to encounter to work your way through life.
[00:22:02] It's patient, it's kind, doesn't envy or boast.
[00:22:10] It's not arrogant, it's not rude, doesn't insist that everything is always my way.
[00:22:19] It's not irritable or resentful it doesn't rejoice when things go wrong, but rejoices when things go right.
[00:22:30] It bears all things, puts up with all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and carries on forever.
[00:22:45] That love is far beyond anything that I think we can ever fathom with our minds and our hearts. But we get some of it and we understand a little bit of it probably, but there's so much more to it.
[00:22:59] So as we make choices to follow God, as we allow the Spirit to work in our lives to experience that love, something really cool happens. And this is where we're going to finish up for this morning.
[00:23:15] Going to flip over to Galatians, Galatians 16 through to 25 again.
[00:23:34] Quite a well known passage, I think, in my Bible. This is. This section is titled Keep in Step with the Spirit.
[00:23:43] It says this, but I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
[00:23:50] For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. I. I love this kind of very simple little phrase there, but that just, it sums up this kind of inner battle that goes on all the time, doesn't it? Between.
[00:24:05] I know God's calling me to do this, but I really want to do this.
[00:24:09] And I know God's calling me to do this and this is really important, but actually, you know, I'd really like to do that.
[00:24:16] I remember when we first moved down here, we were living in Newton Abbott at the time. I was working in Dawlish and, and I used to vary my route to and from work just because it gets boring driving the same way all the time.
[00:24:29] And so, you know, I used to try and test out the Devon roads, the little country roads, try and get used to those.
[00:24:35] I remember one day I was driving home from work and I was, I'd gone the normal way, you know, from Dawlish, coming through Teignmouth on the main road, and I was heading towards the bridge to take you. If you left, went, you went into Shawdon, if you went straight on, you'd end up in Newton. And as I was getting towards the bridge, I just felt this little nudge and it was like, I want you to go left and go across the bridge.
[00:24:58] And for about a minute I had this inner monologue of, I've just done a really long shift, I'm really hungry, I just want to go home. Like, the quickest way home is straight on right now and I really need to get some food because I'm starting to get a Little bit grumpy.
[00:25:15] But I knew God was saying, go left.
[00:25:18] So I turned left, I went across the bridge, and you go down the other side of. I don't know if you've ever done it. You go down the other side of the estuary. It takes you all around through these little villages.
[00:25:30] It's a very twisty, turny road. And in my mind I was like, oh, God's asked me to go left. There must be someone down this road that needs my help. I kind of had my superhero cape on. And I was like, right, we're going to see something now. I'm going to get out of my car, I'm going to fix a problem.
[00:25:44] And I was thinking that all the way home. I got home, I was like, I parked up and I went, God, what was the point in that?
[00:25:53] Why did you take me that way? I thought I was going to solve a problem or something.
[00:25:59] And I just remember very clearly God saying to me, I just needed to know you were listening.
[00:26:08] Just needed to know you were listening. And there was just one of those moments where that inner monologue, that inner battle of, I really want to do this. I'm hungry right now. I could do with getting home and getting some food, but actually, God wanted me to just go the other way. Still don't know why, but there we go.
[00:26:25] So we see this thing, the desires of the flesh against the desires of the spirit. And then it goes on to say, but if you are led by the spirit, you're not under the law.
[00:26:33] Now, the works of flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissension, divisions, enviness, envy, drunkenness, orgies. All these things that we see in the world around us all the time, they are not of the Spirit.
[00:26:52] They are not what God wants us to do in our life.
[00:26:57] But then it says this a bit further on, but the fruit of the Spirit.
[00:27:04] And I don't know about you, I always sing the song in my head at this point anyway. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.
[00:27:17] Against these things, there are no laws.
[00:27:20] And here we go. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
[00:27:42] Notice how this says fruit of the spirit, not fruits of the Spirit.
[00:27:47] It's not a pick and mix. It's not like you go into the supermarket and you get your trolley, you put some bananas in and some apples. It's like walking into the supermarket and picking up a hamper that's got it all in it.
[00:28:00] It's one thing, it's the fruit of the spirit.
[00:28:04] The outworking of the spirit in your life when you allow it to is love, peace, which we've looked at this morning.
[00:28:15] But it's all these other things as well.
[00:28:17] It's joy, it's patience, it's kindness, it's goodness, it's faithfulness, it's gentleness, self control.
[00:28:26] If we can live that way, if we can allow the Spirit to impact our lives, if we make those choices to follow God and nothing else, if we say, we are yours and I'm living your way, we invite the spirit to live within our lives.
[00:28:41] We experience these things and makes a difference.
[00:28:45] And that's the basis, that's the character that God wants within us.
[00:28:49] It's not the outworking of stuff, it's the very essence of who we are.
[00:28:54] God's spirit comes and lives in our lives.
[00:28:57] It changes us from who we used to be to who God wants us to be.
[00:29:03] It changes us from a position of I want to do the things that I want to do to a position of I want to do what God wants me to do.
[00:29:12] And that is what life in the Spirit is about.
[00:29:17] Living in a way that reflects God in everything that we do, in every situation we find ourselves in, in every single possibility that we might have.
[00:29:26] We choose the spirit, we choose the fruit.
[00:29:31] And that character impacts our lives and through impacting our lives, impacts the community around us.
[00:29:42] And that's what I felt God wanted us to hear this morning, was to make the choices daily, make those choices, to live in the way that reflects God.
[00:29:54] And it's a hard choice sometimes, it's not easy, but we have to do it.
[00:30:02] If we're serious about what we say, that we love God, then we have to make those choices.
[00:30:11] And so I just want to. Yeah, I'm going to stop talking now because I think I've talked enough.
[00:30:18] Let's pray.
[00:30:20] I think the band are going to play again, by the sounds of it.
[00:30:24] And if that's sparked anything within you, there are people around that will pray for you.
[00:30:32] There are people around who will happily spend time talking to you.
[00:30:39] Let's pray quickly and then we'll hand back over to the band.
